


The Night Will Reign: Releaser

by squirenonny



Series: Odium's Champion [2]
Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Gen, This AU has an AU, read "The Night Will Reign" first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 19:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4403732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squirenonny/pseuds/squirenonny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odium accounted for every possibility, every champion the Radiants could throw at him. He cheated, and he nearly won the war. He didn't count on mercy.</p><p>Alternate ending for the first chapter of "The Night Will Reign."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night Will Reign: Releaser

**Author's Note:**

> You'll probably want to read at least the first chapter of the original [The Night Will Reign](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3933637/chapters/8812144) before reading this fic, as this is essentially an alternate ending to that fic.

Kaladin doesn’t kill Adolin. Maybe it's Syl’s whispered warnings.  _This is wrong._ Maybe it's Renarin's vision.  _Killing Adolin isn't the answer._ (And, sure, maybe everyone else thinks it’s just brotherly loyalty, but Renarin’s Bridge Four now, dammit, and Kaladin trusts him.)

Maybe it's as simple as realizing, during the battle, that killing Adolin “for the greater good” is what Amaram and Sadeas would do.

Whatever the reason, Kaladin knows he cannot kill his friend.

But even so, Kaladin has no idea what Adolin has been going through.

* * *

It starts even before the Odium-influenced Adolin issues a challenge to Kaladin. Because Adolin is not, by nature, the sort of person who stews in petty jealousy and self-pity. He can be ruthless when someone’s standing in the way of his goals, but he also has self-control. That much, at least, he learned from his father and from the Codes.

Yet Odium is whispering in his ear, and his jealousy is building, and he’s holding it in but it’s not going away like it usually does, and finally he just has to let off some steam. He snaps at his father, at Kaladin, at Shallan. Nothing major, just a momentary lapse.

But it feels so good.

And the next time the stress gets to him, he caves a bit sooner. Maybe it rubs people the wrong way, but they understand. This is a Desolation. Everyone’s on edge. No one will blame Adolin for getting a bit testy every now and again.

Just like that, Odium has a foothold. He manipulates Adolin, but never takes that last little step. It’s Adolin’s choice, and that’s important. Adolin can’t have an easy out. Kaladin cannot view Adolin as a victim to save; he must be the enemy. (Odium can work with Kaladin dead and out of his way, but he really wants to _own_ Kaladin, and that means making Kaladin kill Adolin.)

But there’s still a piece of the old Adolin in there somewhere, someone who realizes that this isn’t him. Someone who doesn’t like who he’s become. There’s dissonance between the two versions of Adolin, between who Adolin is and who he wants to be—but the difference isn’t enough for Adolin to recognize and resist Odium’s influence.

Adolin, in short, is Broken.

He is _so very broken_.

And that opens the way.

It happens fast, because his spren has been waiting. Waiting for so long. _So long_. She doesn’t understand time yet, but she knows she has seen many storms, many deaths.

She was alone for a long time, passed from hand to hand, spliced back together and forced to kill. Ten heartbeats of agony, a few moments of fierce, sloppy, violence, and then oblivion once more.

And then she met Adolin.

He was different than the others, from the very beginning.

He didn’t claim her. Didn’t erase her past, her pain.

He spoke to her.

He _listened_.

She always wanted to answer. She tried, more than once.

But he was not Broken.

He could not hear her.

But she watched. And she aided him in those few, small ways she could. A feather-touch to his mind, scarcely more than instinct, to warn him of danger or to guide his hands.

When Odium came, he chased her out. He gave Adolin an Honorblade so he would not think of her.

But she is already bound to him. Not _the_ Bond, the link that would make him Radiant, but a bond far more elusive. She loves him, and when he Breaks she is there to fill the gap.

It’s not an easy process. She has no physical presence besides the Blade, not yet. She hasn’t healed enough for that. But she is with him in the Cognitive Realm, and in the Spiritual, whispering wordless encouragement in Adolin’s ear. Thought is hard. She doesn’t remember what she needs to do or how, and even if she did, Adolin is bound too tightly to Odium to hear her voice.

But she stays close, and she heals, and the Bond grows stronger. And when Kaladin comes and tries to free Adolin, she helps as best she can.

Together Kaladin and Adolin’s spren drive Odium out of Adolin. The crack in Adolin’s soul widens to a chasm, and his spren floods in.

The sudden influx of Stormlight is almost too much for Adolin in his battered state. The Nahel bond is designed to introduce Radiants to Stormlight gradually, giving their bodies time to adapt as they train and discover the Words. The spren regulates the flow so their human isn’t overwhelmed. But Adolin’s soul is already wide open, and there isn’t much his spren can do to slow the torrent.

* * *

The next few months are hard. Adolin's spren is healing, but slowly, and forming a Blade puts a tremendous strain on her. She _can_ do it, if she has to, but it hurts her, and Adolin is acutely aware of her pain. He does what he can with his Surges—Abrasion and Division—but none of the other Radiants can teach him, and he doesn’t have the control to effectively direct the flood of Stormlight that answers his call whenever he practices.

But mostly what’s holding him back is his own guilt. He can’t let go of what he did before Kaladin saved him. He’s ashamed that he was so weak that he couldn’t stop himself from playing into Odium’s hands. A part of him wishes Kaladin _had_ killed him, because then at least he would have got what he deserved.

He says the first Ideal, but it rings hollow. Odium turned his strengths to weakness. He questions whether there’s any value in continuing to live. And no matter where his destination ends up being, he’s already ruined the journey.

As his bond with his spren deepens, however, Adolin learns more about the Releasers and how they viewed their role as Radiants—and it’s worlds away from the stance taken by the Bondsmiths and the Windrunners (the view Adolin is most familiar with, thanks to Kaladin and Dalinar always prattling on about their Ideals.)

The Windrunners and Bondsmiths are of Honor. They are idealists. Live, and protect life, because it is right. Be strong, morally and physically, because others are looking to you. Act with honor, because noble goals don’t justify ignoble means.

The Releasers are far more practical. “Life before death” because there’s no going back. “Strength before weakness”—whether that strength is yours or someone else’s—because it doesn’t make sense to be someone you aren’t. “Journey before destination” because you can’t have perfection until you’ve earned it. Even if getting there is a long, hard, muddy path.

This time when Adolin speaks the Words there is power in them.

And the Second Ideal follows close on the tail of the first: “I will do what must be done.” Kaladin and Dalinar are of Honor. They are heroes. Adolin cannot be that, but he can make sure they are able to uphold their Ideals.

That’s what it means to be a Releaser.


End file.
